As an undergraduate teaching assistant for PSYC 317, I’ve completed a variety of tasks, including:

• Holding a weekly Zoom office hour Fridays from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm during which students were free to drop-in with any questions or concerns about 317 material. I initially tried structuring these sessions by compiling a list of practice problems to go over with students. However, when I ultimately discovered that typically no more than one or two students attended each session, I found it was best to let students lead the sessions by telling me what they most needed help with.
• Assisting graduate TAs during Monday lab sections. Students were separated into three one-hour and 50 minute lab Monday sections for this course. I was there to assist the graduate TAs who led these labs by helping guide students through SPSS activities during the first half of the class and proctoring timed lab assignments during the second half of class.
• Proofreading course materials. I helped Dr. Moore by proofing various lecture videos and course documents for clarity and calculation accuracy.
• Keeping in touch with students via email. Throughout the week, students were welcome to send questions my way via email, and I was happy to try to resolve any 317-related confusion swfitly.

Below, I’ve included a couple of artifacts that illustrate my UTA experience.

317-email-artifact

Artifact 1, part 1: Email correspondence clarifying Cohen’s d calculation with a student.

Artifact 1, part 2: The question of concern where she was struggling with Cohen’s d calculation.

The above correspondence with Brianna illustrates a frequent task of mine as a UTA, which was helping students with course questions via email. This student was having trouble interpreting feedback on a lab assignment, specifically how to properly calculate Cohen’s d effect size. Based on her given answer, I determined she had mistakenly used variance in the calculation process instead of standard deviation – an easy mistake to make! I wanted to emphasize that Brianna had the right idea by obtaining variance and simply needed to take the process a step further by then taking its square root, as the denominator of the Cohen’s d formula is standard deviation.

When first learning concepts in 317, I think it’s easy to become overwhelmed and make the mistake that variance and standard deviation are interchangeable. I tried my best to break down the process for obtaining Cohen’s d for her so that she could see the difference between variance and standard deviation. I also did so in plain English, as sometimes, overuse of statistical symbology, while necessary to learn, can be even more confusing when trying to comprehend how statistical concepts relate to each other. (I frequently encourage students to write out a plain English version of each formula next to the symbol-only formula, as sometimes it feels like learning a new language!) I think breaking these processes down into a more digestible format helps support my philosophy that statistics is learnable when you allow yourself to practice confusing topics and reach out for help if you find yourself stalling, supporting the growth mindset approach. I also always encourage students to ask for more clarification if my initial answer was not sufficient as I never want to be seen as a source of stress.

My correspondence with this student really taught me just how important it is to give clear, digestible feedback to students. As researchers advance in their careers, I think it can be really easy to forget what it’s like when you’re first introduced to these concepts. As a UTA, I think I have the advantage of still being a beginner in research myself, which allows me to relate confusing statistics concepts in more clear terms to my peers. If I were to complete this task again, I would probably break down the steps even more, perhaps with bullet points and even more complete explanations, to ensure understanding on the student’s end.

Correlation-ID-practice

Artifact 2: Correlation identification practice questions

Throughout my entire semester as a UTA, I’ve had one student reach out consistently for help by making use of my drop-in office hours and email availability. During the correlation chapter, she was particularly struggling with identifying the correct correlation to run when given different scales of measurement. In preparation for an upcoming exam, she asked if I’d be able to come up with a few more practice questions to supplement those provided by Dr. Moore. I was happy to do so.

I included four scenarios covering situations in which Pearson, point-biserial, spearman, and phi coefficient correlations would be appropriate. The answer key was provided separately for this student, although I’ve included answers with their respective questions above for clarity. After completing the worksheet, the student and I discussed her responses via Zoom, and I gave feedback to clarify any trouble spots. I’ve been very impressed by this student’s resilience with the material. I’m glad that this student feels comfortable seeking out my help with PSYC 317, as during my interactions with her and other students, I try to maintain an encouraging and lighthearted demeanor. This example is also illustrative of how helpful extra practice can be when improving one’s performance in a math course. Further, although not depicted by this image, I really enjoyed every interaction I had with this student and found that we were often able to laugh through some of the more challenging days, which supports my belief that a sense of humor is helpful in strengthening a student’s resilience.

Developing this problem set taught me that the development of practice problems is arguably just as difficult as solving them. As I was brainstorming wording for the above scenarios, I was unsure if I should try to contextualize them with real findings or just select random variables to correlate. I ended up doing the latter, as the former would have been extremely time-consuming. I now appreciate even more the time Dr. Moore invests to develop problem sets and activities based on real research studies! If I had to do this activity again, I would probably try to flesh out the scenarios a little more, as well as include an additional scenario for each of the four correlations (Pearson, point-biserial, spearman, and phi coefficient) the students are expected to learn.